For more than a decade, the Network for Public Health Law has worked with key stakeholders across the United States to advance law and policy that supports safer, healthier, stronger and more equitable communities. The Network provides technical assistance, trainings, evidence-based tools and resources, and connects public health policymakers, officials, lawyers, and practitioners as well as community-led organizations, health care providers, advocates and other stakeholders in community health to find real and lasting solutions to some of our nation’s most critical public health issues.

Limited access to reproductive health care is among these critical issues. Many communities, in particular communities suffering from structural racism, have experienced challenges in accessing reproductive health care, contributing to health inequities.

The Network is currently assessing the state-by-state law and policy landscape, and providing information to assist public health and other care providers to understand ways to expand access to reproductive care.

Below are a list of resources and law and policy insights from the network:

Resources

• Six Policies that Advance Black Health and Wellbeing
• Post-Dobbs Abortion Access Routes: A Primer
• State-Based Abortion Protections
• Abortion Access: Post-Dobbs Litigation Themes
• Key Federal Responses to Protect Abortion Access and Promote Reproductive Health Post-Dobbs
• Post-Dobbs Legal Avenues to Abortion Access
• Abortion Access: A Post-Roe Public Health Emergency
• Ballot Measures on Abortion Access

Law and Policy Insights

• Maryland’s Approach to Enhancing Access to Abortion: Expanding Scope of Practice
• Legal and Ethical Implications of Increased Rates of Sterilizations Post-Dobbs
• Using Local Ordinances, Resolutions, and Non-Prosecution Measures to Protect Reproductive Health
• Racial Disparities in Women’s Health

People. Policy. Progress.

Health is shaped by a myriad of determinants including access to quality health care, stable housing, culturally appropriate and nutritious food, safe environments and employment. Structural racism, ableism, misogyny and discrimination against the LGBTQ community and others, along with other forms of discrimination create barriers to equitable health outcomes.

Momentum has been building in public health to change systems to reduce or eradicate the negative health effects of discrimination and to improve health by addressing these determinants of health as core work. Success requires a diverse set of collaborators, with federal, tribal, state, and local laws and policies playing an integral role.

The 2023 Public Health Law Conference, to be held October 24-26, 2023 in Minneapolis, Minnesota, will bring together public health officials, administrators and practitioners; lawyers; researchers; leaders of community-based organizations and others who share these goals.

More than 40 sessions will address:

• Structural inequities to achieve health equity.
• Access to reproductive health care.
• The use of public health data to improve community health.
• The role of law in facilitating system change.
• Emerging issues.

To learn more and to register: https://events.networkforphl.org/2023-conference/register/